Lesson One: Mapping Education Technology Startups in the MENA

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Education is a powerful tool. Those of us
privileged enough to get a good education often forget that for the
majority of people around the world education is about hope; a
promise that tomorrow will be better than today. As it seems right
now, nowhere is that promise more important than the Arab
region.

Recognizing the importance of education,
governments across the region have been sanctioning almost 20% of
their countries’ public expenditure to education – well above
average allotments globally and in Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Nevertheless, as has
become apparent, the returns on these investments have been mixed
at best, for Arab employers, governments, and society. Worryingly,
it will become even more difficult to maintain the current
“quality” of education as populations continue to grow. Between
2010 and 2015, the region is expected to absorb approximately
300,000 new pupils per year - bringing the region to a total of
53.6
million students. The supply of formal education across the
region has so far not been able to keep up with the demand.

A further challenge is that people that have gone
through the system are still sometimes ill equipped to compete for
jobs in and out of the region. The regional unemployment rate is at
a global high of 10%, and almost 80%
of Middle Eastern and North African youth work in the informal
sector, a clear indicator that a significant amount of re-skilling
initiatives are needed.

As has often been argued, the education sector
needs a
revolutionary change, not an incremental one. Government
institutions and entrenched players in the sector are often not
best positioned to enact such changes. Change will need to
come from education and education technology startups across the
region. There is a lot of talk about startups across the
Arab region, and while many are trying to solve important problems,
none are arguably more important for the region’s prosperity than
those working in education and employment. It’s very important that
the entrepreneurial ecosystem give special focus to startups that
are
tackling the crux of the matter.

The Wamda Research Lab’s newest report, Lesson One:
Mapping Education Technology Startups in MENA is the first effort
to try and better understand the education technology (edtech)
entrepreneurship space in the Arab world. Our survey of over 50
entrepreneurs shows that edtech startups are concentrated in Jordan
and Egypt, generally focus on the K-12 market, and cite lack of
funding as their primary challenge among others. These
entrepreneurs are trying to fill gaps their governments have been
unable to and other needs they have recognized themselves.

Regional attitudes towards the use of technology in
education such as learning online are certainly encouraging and
have improved
over time. When the Queen Rania Foundation launched edraak.org (a non-profit online education
platform of which I am the founding manager) in May of this year we
were positively surprised to see over 100,000 learners sign up in
under five months; almost 10% of these have earned certificates of
completion.

The Arab edtech sector is still in its infancy and
startups in this space will need a lot of support. Lesson One is
only the first chapter of what we hope will be a long and
wide-ranging discussion on supporting the development of a sector
that will ensure tomorrow is better than today for millions of
Arabs across the region.